The Gray Area
by Ninja93
Summary: The world is gray without the brightly shining sun. All the colors are gone, just shades of anguish remain.  *I don't own Bones*  MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH!
1. Chapter 1

**~*So this is my first update in a while, enjoy! But I'm warning ya, if you cry easily, don't read this! There's a character death that you may not agree with*~**

The days were dreary now that is sunlight was gone. All he could see were the gray's of a world he had come to loath with every fiber of his being. His jaw seemed permanently clenched, his forehead in constant scowl. His plain black suit was neatly pressed, an American flag on the lapel.

By all appearances Seeley Booth was a sad angry man. He stared straight forward as if daring the air to do something against his will. His brown eye's avoided the coffin being lowered into the cold dark earth. His world was gone, his soul in tatters.

The friends he had come to know stood by him on one side of the coffin, his family on the other. He glanced at his partner and friend Temperance Brennan who was trying to hide some emotion he bet was sadness. Her face was stuck between blank and a flicker of puckered lips and saddened blue eye's. She shifted uncomfortably, shoving her hands in her black coat pockets.

Standing stoically next to her was Angela Montenegro in the arms of Jack Hodgins. Angela's eye's were red her normally wild hair was tamed by a wool hat. Hodgins hand was wrapped securely around her waist as if she were going to fall if he let go. His blue eyes were blank, his sadness concealed.

Booth glanced to his left at Camille Saroyan, she had been crying recently too. Her eyes just as red as Angela's. She wasn't as good as the others at conceals grief.

Doctor Lance Sweet's stood beside her. He hadn't really known the deceased, but it was still something that saddened him. It sent a chill through his heart causing him to shudder as he stared at the coffin.

Booth faced forward again his gaze falling on the coffin. He imagined the inhabitant would jump up and shout surprise... but no such luck would be afforded. The coffin was small, it's inhabitant smaller. The bouquet of flowers on the lid seemed just as dreary and gray as the rest of the world. Booth's eye's finally came to rest on the tomb stone. It was delicately crafted in the form of an angle boy on his knee's praying. Booth's eye's teared up as he looked at the name,

_Parker Edward Booth_

_Age 8_

_2002-2010_

Booth's jaw tightened again and again, his fists clenching over and over. He would get the bastard who had taken the color from his world. The people at his side would help him in every way they could, and they were the best. Seeley Booth's eyes shone in determination as he stared at the coffin once more.

**~*I'm not cold hearted! I had tear's in my eye's while typing this! And it's not over, there's a murder mystery and everything!*~**


	2. Chapter 2

**~* Here we are folks, a filler chapter, setting the mood and what have you! I am in to cheerful a mood to have written depression with a crayon all over this page! ENJOY!*~ **

Booth sat in Temperance's office. The couch seemed way to soft for his mood so he sat leaning on his knee's on the edge of the leather thing, memorizing every line on his battered hands. The same hands that had once changed his beautiful son's diapers.

With a massive sigh he sat back and looked about the room, his eye's drawn to the mummy in a display case shoved off in the far corner. Straying over shelves filled with books and ornaments directly related to some anthropological fact. The lighting effect made the objects seem warm and inviting, to Booth they seemed cold and desolate. His eye's trailed to Brennan's desk, paperwork was piling up around a computer monitor. A tack board on wheels sat behind her sitting area, the outline for her next book meshed with facts from recent work.

His observation returned to his hands just as Temperance walked through the door, pausing at the threshold she took in his appearance, "Booth." She said simply and he stood, not making eye contact he stared at the mummy. He was surprised by her warm arms encircling his waist.

"What are you doing?" He asked in a hollow voice. Booth didn't register his own arms moving around her, seeking comfort.

Brennan buried her face in the crook of his neck uncharacteristically "I'm scared." Seeley's hardened brown eye's softened a few degree's and he gently placed his chin on her forehead, rubbing soft circles in her back. He knew why she was afraid. She hadn't been able to compartmentalize the loss of the younger Booth, she was afraid of the emotions, and how they would change the future. She was afraid of the 'what ifs' that currently plagued their reality.

Booth was scared too.

"I know Tempe...I know." He murmured, his voice seemed to awake her as she took a hurried step away from their embrace. Seeley instantly missed the warmth she had provided his cold soul.

Temperance cleared her throat before moving toward her desk, "I haven't been able to find anything on the bones," She murmured as she sat at her computer aimlessly, "We've been over the other scene's over twenty times each but still nothing."

Booth stood stoically as she gave him a report that he shouldn't be allowed to hear. He had been pulled from the case a few days earlier. After a psych evaluation he would be allowed to return to the field. It wasn't just Parker who had been killed, five other boys had been found in a similar fashion throughout DC. Some were more decomposed then others and some weren't even cold yet.

Seeley knew from the bags under her eye's and the pale color of her skin that Brennan hadn't slept in days. She'd been working the case from every angle possible and still had nothing to show for it. He had only been able to sleep with the aid of sleep meds even then he hardly made it through the night. He watched her down another cup of coffee before he stepped forward, "Have you eaten today?"

She looked up from the crime scene photo's scattered around her desk, "That hardly matters." She murmured, turning back to the pictures.

"It matter's Bone's, you've been making sure I eat and sleep and work. Now I'm returning the favor, let's go." Seeley ordered pulling her jacket off the coat tree and helping her into it. He led her from the Jeffersonian with a hand at the small of her back, every line and groove still burned into his memory.

A short drive from the Jeffersonian and they arrived at The Royal Dinner. They sat in their usual spot and order their usual food. A chef's salad for Brennan and a burger and fries for Booth. Each had a mug full of coffee.

Neither spoke, the atmosphere between them was stale as they ate. Silence was golden in these situations. Temperance kept looking out the window or staring off into space, and Booth swore he could see the hamster running full steam on it's wheel.

**~*R&R please, I mean it's not like I'm desperate or anything (sits in hobo attire in a dirty ally way). Not desperate at all (holds up 'R&R' sign). =D *~ **


	3. Chapter 3

**~*Short chapter this time, bit of a bleh, little bit of blah. Hope you enjoy =D*~**

A few days had come and gone and still they had nothing. Booth was no where to be found and Brennan was working up a storm on the platform. She downed the last of her tenth cup of coffee and turned back to the small bones on her table.

The lab was abuzz with the normal background noise. People walking about, tool's being used, scientific jargon. Temperance tried to ignore the dull throb imitating from somewhere behind her eye's when Booth mad an enraged appearance. He barely paused to swipe his card through the ID slot.

"You kept a piece of my son!" He exclaimed in outrage and the chatter stopped.

Temperance took a deep breath, "It was detrimental to the case. As in all murder investigation's, you should have known that."

Seeley's face was red with rage, "I thought maybe you'd have a little more respect, obviously I was wrong! I can't believe- your just as cold hearted as ever." He growled and Brennan's eye's widened. The tension could have been cut with a knife.

She turned to a tech, "Tell Cam I'm taking the rest of the day off." She whispered, glancing once more at Booth before practically running for the exit. She nearly ran over Hodgins and Angela as they returned from their lunch break.

"Sweetie?" Angela called but Temperance didn't look back.

* * *

Brennan walked briskly through the hall's of her apartment building, her apartment was on the third floor. The elevator was currently out-of-order and she was forced to take the stairs. Her footsteps echoed off the linoleum floor, a slight squeak from the sole sounded every few steps.

The soft echo mocked her as Booth's words bounced around in her skull. Tear's stung her eye's, his red face burned into her mind. He had never looked at her with such malice. Never.

Temperance sighed as she reached apartment 2B, her humble abode. Digging her key's from her purse she paused, the hair's on the back of her neck standing on end as she glanced around the dim hall. Shaking her head she unlocked the door.

**~*R & R lovely people!*~ **


	4. Chapter 4

**~So I may be back...just a little bit XD!**

With yet another sigh Brennan moved into her apartment dropping her keys on a small table by the door as she went. After laying her paperwork on the kitchen table for review Temperance stepped into the bathroom to change into more comfortable cloths. She spared the small trash bin by the commode a glance, the feeling of impending doom washing over her like a wave. Atop a small mound of trash sat three or four pregnancy tests all of which held the same result. Positive.

Figurative butterflies made chaos in her stomach she donned her sweat pants and sweater. Brennan knew of only one man who could be the father. The only man she had been with in ages, and the only man she could see herself raising a child with. The man who had stormed into her lab in a rage earlier that day; Special Agent Seeley Booth.

Temperance knew she would have to tell him eventually. She had even planned it all out only to have the plans destroyed by the chilling news of Parkers death. Looking into the full length mirror on the door that led from the bathroom Brennan gently placed a hand on her stomach. A wave of exhaustion swept over the anthropologist while she study herself in the mirror and she could not deny her body it's much needed rest.

Shutting the lights off she exited the bathroom and made her bedroom. She would have to tell Booth sooner or later, as she lay down in a bed that was almost foreign to her now. Temperance was out the moment her head hit the pillow.

Seeley sat in his office in the Hoover building, he was the only one still working at the late hour of three in the morning. He had been reading the same file over and over with no new results and it was beginning to weigh on him heavily. One could tell by the sag in his shoulders and the bags under his eyes that he was at the end of a very short rope.

Fighting against the aching need for sleep Booth flipped the file back to the beginning. A picture of Parker stared at him from a silver picture frame that sat atop his cluttered desk. His sons smile a haunting reminder of what he had lost, the pain stabbing at his heart like a thousand knives.

Clenching his fists he pressed his hands to his forehead. It took all of his control not to break everything within his reach. Slowly Booth's heart began to slow, the feelings of dread and anger and hurt drifting back behind a thin wall ready to break again at any moment.

Without realizing when it had happened Seeley's thoughts had gone to his partner. Temperance Brennan. His heart clenched again as he recalled how he had acted earlier that same day. She had been working so hard on the case and his emotions had gotten the better of him.

Quickly resolving to make it up to her as he rested his eyes Booth let his mind wonder to what he would do to the man who had taken his son from him. After a few minutes of imagining he was out like a light.

* * *

Temperance jogged into the Jeffersonian, files balanced in one arm keys jingling in the other. It was almost noon and she was very very late. Dodging a lab worker she quickly unlocked her office door, dropping the files onto her desk. Pausing to turn on her computer she grabbed her lab coat and made her way out onto the lab floor. Pulling the dark blue lab coat on she swiped her key card and stepped onto the platform.

"Hey Dr. B." Hodgins mumbled from his place at a microscope not far from a decaying body. "Coming in late?" He asked after a moment of silence. Brennan ignored the question leaning over the body of a young boy. She instantly became engrossed in the bones on the table, gently moving a bone with gloved hands. A small knick on the surface of the ulna struck her as odd. Carefully swabbing the filthy bone she placed the swab in a small bag.

"Will you run this sample for me Hodgins?" Brennan asked, holding the bag out toward him. Jack sighed, leaving the microscope and taking the bag.

With a small smirk he said, "I'll run this through as fast as I can. I'll call you when I get the results." He walked off the platform as Booth walked as slow as he could toward it. With a short glower in his direction Hodgins stalked off toward his office, news of what Booth had said had spread like wild fire through the lab.

Temperance pulled off her gloves and moved around the table reading a short report on the defensive wounds the boys had obtained. Needless to say she was surprised when she ran head first into her partner. Booth steadied her quickly before she could fall backward, "Hey-whoa, you alright?"

Brennan's heart was seized by a cold icy dread, "Booth." It had donned on her the instant she had looked into his eyes. "I-" Tossing the case file onto a nearby table she rushed around him and toward her office, "I have to check on something!" She called back, throwing her lab coat onto her desk before practically running from the lab.

Booth stood silently on the platform, his mouth agape as the door shut after her. Angela glanced between the closing door and Booth, "What was that about?"

* * *

Temperance stood over a micro film machine, the news paper article she was looking at confirmed her theory. There were more victims. Spread out of the years the killer had claimed more than thirteen young boys.

Just as Brennan reached for another slide her phone rang causing her to jump. The short chirping ring broke through the cloud of theories and for the first time she realized it had grown darker outside. With a frown she hit talk and pressed the phone to her ear, "Brennan." Her own voice seemed incredibly loud in the otherwise silent room.

"'We need to talk Temperance.'" Brennan froze at the sound of Seeley's voice, her heart fluttering. It was strange, she had never reacted like this to anyone before, "'Are you there?'"

She smiled, what a silly question, "Yeah. I was just doing some research." Laying the slides she was about to look at beside the micro film machine she absently watched the flickering of the machines light.

After a long pause Booth began speaking in a slow deliberate tone, "'I was in your apartment earlier...I was worried when you ran out of the lab. Temperance I had to use the restroom while I was there-well I-I have been drinking a lot of coffee lately and- well...'" He trailed off and Brennan sat quietly her eye's wide with shock. "'Are you? I mean- you know?'"

A smile slowly spread across her face, "I wanted to tell you face to face but this somehow seems more appropriate. I'm pregnant Seeley...It's..." Her mouth suddenly went dry, her fingers went numb first, "Booth..." She whimpered before her head dropped to the desk, scattering the slides she was about to use, the phone fell from her hand hitting the floor with a loud clatter. A man towered over her sedated body an empty syringe in his hand. The last thing Brennan registered was Booth calling her name.


End file.
